Drug rehab is the best choice that any addict can make, but it can be a complicated and confusing time in the addict’s life. We all need guidance while making the decisions that can put our crumbled lives back together, so here are five tips for drug rehab recovery. Follow them, and you’ll find yourself getting back to a life of sanity in no time.
1. Your recovery has to be the priority in your life
If you ever want to turn your life around, you’re going to have to make recovery from drugs your priority in life. You can’t tell yourself that you’re going to get to it later when you have more time. An attitude like this will put off recovery forever. Instead, you need to look into getting yourself into rehab right away. You owe it to yourself to put your life back together.
2. Use your family as a support system
Your family is the best support system you’re ever going to find. You may have upset them or alienated them with your behavior in the past, but they will still be the absolute best support in your life if you give them the chance. It may take time to build up this type of support again, and you may have to repair damage that you’ve done while using drugs.
This might mean that you need to work at repaying your family for money you borrowed or wasted. You might even need to help out for free around their houses for a while to pay them back. In the end, it’ll all be worth it when that shoulder is extended to lean your head on.
3. It’s time to find a new environment
One of the best actions you can take for yourself is to find a new environment. Studies have shown that having a new environment is one of the most effective ways to throw off your old habits and to start acting like a new person.
Think about it. Your old environment is full of the drug dealers you knew and the fellow addicts that you were getting high with. You need to get out of that environment so that you are constantly reminded of the bad decisions you made and can start to forge a new life for yourself.
4. Don’t hang out with old, drug using friends
When you get out of rehab, you might feel the urge to look up your old friends and to revisit your old “haunts.” This is probably a bad idea. If you were using drugs before, your friends probably were, too. Even if they weren’t, they weren’t doing much to keep you from using drugs. If they had been, you wouldn’t be an addict, would you?
So, at best, these friends didn’t really have your back, and at worst, they actively contributed to you destroying your life with drugs. It’s a good idea to start building a new friend group: one that is completely sober.
5. Find productive uses for your time
One of the best ways to use your time while in recovery is to donate your energy to volunteer work. You can find thousands of ways to help the poor, the less fortunate or even fellow community members that have gone through addiction themselves. You have benefited from the help of the drug rehab staff that got you clean, so it’s a great feeling to give back by helping others do the same.
By keeping your time occupied with productive pursuits, you’ll find that you simply don’t have any time or attention for getting high or drunk.
Recovery:
NationalGeographic.com: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/drugged/articles/tips-and-reminders-for-a-successful-recovery/